What is deem'ed a low-priced ebay on simple delivery?

[lace_specialist_uk]

Now that ebay are making simple delivery mandatory shortly what is deem'ed a low-priced ebay on simple delivery.

Is it items listed at £20.00 and under or what?

As a low priced item is excluded from simple delivery 

I prefer to just put on a 1st class stamp or 2nd class stamp on most items I sell

Thanks Pearse 

[edwardian-dreams]

I presume there will be a custom postage button….somewhere ….for all those items that are exempt from SD

theres one at the moment under SD for heavy or outsized..At the bottom of the weights menu…it takes you to ALL weights sizes and delivery methods plus you put your postage cost freely

it it was me I’d just use that and see what happens

not sure what you mean by how will eBay know what your item weighs

all we can do at the moment is wait see what appears on the 15th

[lucy_farmer]

'No one seems to be able to tell me HOW eBay will know my item is under 100g.'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps their AI systems will read the heading and spot the word 'Stamp' or 'Postcard' and that would take the listing out of S.D. territory?

Not sure how that would work with Stamp albums mind you...

S.D. becomes less and less S. the more you think about it! 🤔

[zoli.-60]

It no longer let's me list 99p, under-100-g, small-letter-sized items with Royal Mail Second Class delivery but it enforces a £2.70+ tracked service. Noone in their right mind will buy things with this delivery charge. eBay also shoots itself in the foot, as they will no longer be able to collect the 75p buyer protection fee per item.

[lucy_farmer]

'......no longer let's me list 99p, under-100-g, small-letter-sized items with Royal Mail Second Class delivery but it enforces a £2.70+ tracked service.'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ah, that's bad..... in all the circular arguments we've been having about <100gms, <£10.00 large letter being exempt or not from S.D., normal SMALL letters have always been in the *NO* S.D. camp.

And this is from the horse's mouth of ebay's *own* rules and actual answers to questions asked in 'weekly chat'.

What the chuff? ebay?....

[susapric-68]

You could avoid the SD worry by correctly registering your business on eBay and not illegally trade on a private account. You're one of the reasons real private sellers now have BPF and SD on their listings

[zoli.-60]

Dear susapric-68,

Could you elaborate on why am I (or are we? - not clear to whom you addressed your comment) "trading illegally" when my turnover (not profit but turnover) is less than what I should be paying for a business eBay account every month, and also I have no business set up, since there is no meaningful amount of revenue from these ridiculous number of items sold on eBay, not even a tiny fraction of the tax free trading allowance that HMRC permits in a tax year.

Everyone understands that BPF is a form of revenue for eBay / a fee to cover costs of staff handling the occassional disputes between buyers and sellers. Everyone who continues to sell on eBay accepts that there are some fees you will have to pay, and nobody on this thread was objecting that.

As for, SD vs. using cheap, untracked Royal Mail Service, what is your reasoning against the latter when in the past 5 years I have successfully completed all orders, and there was no single situation when the item (eventually) didn't arrive. Sometimes with a delivery time of up to 3 weeks, thanks to Royal Mail, but that's what comes with the cheap delivery service. It is very misleading when a buyer sees an "estimated delivery in 2-4 days" when everyone who is actually using these services knows that Royal Mail cannot guarantee those timelines. I would rather make it possible for private sellers to set their own estimated deliviery times (I'd put 3-21 days in case of Royal Mail if I could set it myself) provide transparency for the buyer, rather than fool them.

Anyway, with what it is, I always managed any delays with my buyers so far, and in the odd case when the letter arrived damaged/empty, I refunded the full amount they paid and the problem was solved... so what is YOUR problem, please elaborate!

I am seriously surprised that such an arrogant comment can come from a "Helper" on this forum, and I hope you will be moderated / lose your "Helper" title, because "you are not helping!"

[lucy_farmer]

Hello Zoli,

Unfortunately, the 'trading illegally' comment wasn't wrong 🙁

Whether or not a seller should  or shouldn't be on a business account doesn't have anything to do with HRMC, trading allowances, profits or even making any money at all!

(HMRC don't care where or how anybody makes money, as long as they tell HMRC about it and pay any taxes due, or don't pay because they're under the trading allowance!)

The legaility problem lies with UK Consumer Law, online trading regulations and Trading Standards.

There's a bunch of conditions that, if you meet them, you are deemed to be running a business.

These conditions are : anybody buying anything specifically to sell on. Making anything to sell on. Or even growing anything to sell on.

(these include every sized seller from a factory making pressed steel widgets, to a grandmother knitting baby clothes to sell on ebay.... feels unfair to the grandmother I know, but thems the rules.)

(all your stuff is Brand New, and couldn't look less like the 2nd hand contents of your loft/garage/wardrobe - which is where genuine private sellers are supposed to source the items..)

And, once you're deemed a business there's a pile of regulations you have to meet to sell online.

Most of these rules concern  refunds, returns, cooling-off periods and such like. But there is *one* rule that makes it impossible for a business to trade on a private account on ebay.

This is Consumer law's insistance on having the sellers name, address, contact detail etc. on every listing.

This totally contradicts ebay's rule on NO CONTACT details allowed on private listings. If you try it you immediately get sanctioned for attempting to avoid fees ('off- ebay' trading)

(And, of course you P off all correctly registered businesses because they are paying fees and you're not.....!)

(I left my first response without looking at your listings..)

Edit- spelling.

[susapric-68]

Not sure why but I clicked reply to the OP and it should have shown as a reply to them. The OP is clearly a business. Nice rant but why did you think it was aimed at you when  there's someone after your post. Not really a contributor are you and should lose that title because "you're not contributing". Edit. Ah just looked at your new (Temu brought) items and can see why you thought it was you. If you buy to sell then you're a business, nothing to do with profits. But I will live up to my title to keep you happy and report your business on a private account to eBay, no need to that me that's what helpers do

[lucy_farmer]

Well, as it happens susa, you weren't wrong...

[zoli.-60]

I had a chat with eBay support last night, we were troubleshooting the situation, as they also believed that something with that low value, and something that fits in a letter, and is <100g should be possible to be listed with Royal Mail second class delivery service. They opened a technical report with their R&D and will be investigated... to be continued....

[susapric-68]

Yeah got to thank them for bringing their business to the attention of everyone

[plhubbs]

Am I behind the times here? I thought you could choose between 'simple delivery' or the usual way by clicking on 'switch to advanced options'? 🤔

[kh-shakhib]

Hi everyone,

This discussion has gotten a bit heated. Please remember that, while it is fine to disagree with others, discussion should always remain friendly and respectful as required by the Community Guidelines .

Thank you for your cooperation.

[zoli.-60]

Hi lucy_farmer,

I haven't found reasonable information from reputable sources that would clearly clarify that a sole trader cannot legally be an eBay "private seller". If you have such references, please help our understanding by pointing us there.

I am operating as a sole trader. HMRC states that "You register as a sole trader by registering for Self Assessment" https://www.gov.uk/become-sole-trader/register-sole-trader
✔

Most rules, generally, related to distance selling ( https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses ) are guaranteed by the way the eBay platform is built, the way we can list items, such as adequate information about the products, pricing, delivery arrangements, time and form of cancellation. ✔ Re refunds, returns, eBay guarantees buyers get refunded thanks to the new BPF. ✔

There are specific rules that you need to follow. There are types of goods that need licencing (such as registering with DEFRA for becoming a Professional Operator to sell flower seeds online ✔).

The only problematic point I have identified so far, also as you have pointed out is that eBay doesn't provide the interface to uniformly display the private seller's name, address and contact details, like for eBay business accounts in the About section (and if I would put that information in the listing itself, eBay immediately suspended my account accusing me of trying to take the deals offline and evade eBay fees). I only hope that in case a buyer opened a dispute and asked for my details from eBay and the details were shared with the buyer, that would satisfy the regulation. This rather sounds like a "how to collect fees" eBay problem than the question of trading illegally or not, I am not trying to hide my details.

I appreciate your help with sharing any further information and insights!

[susapric-68]

Any eBay protection does not replace consumer rights . If you want to find out if it is legal to pretend to be a private seller just check out consumer laws. Oh in case you did not know but new protection came in the other day. Cut and paste for you but you can go check a Gov site "Under new UK consumer laws, it's illegal for businesses to hide mandatory fees from consumers and include them later in the checkout process, says the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). This extends to avoiding fees by claiming not to be a business." The CMA can fine you for passing over the fees to your buyers. Also can check again this "Laws designed to protect consumers from unfair or misleading practices may be triggered if you are pretending not to be a business to avoid fees that are typically charged to businesses."

[zoli.-60]

plhubbs, the problem is that it won't let me list the item once I switch to the advanced delivery option (screenshot of error message attached). As someone else mentioned on the thread, it seems like eBay is not able to tell the size or weight of the item from the item description section, and there is also no way to enter it manually in the advanced delivery option.

[susapric-68]

If you get yourself correctly registered then as you sell low priced items you could activate "Low cost items - FVF 5p + 15%" and you would pays less in fees than what eBay are adding to your listings for BPF" making you more competitive

 

[zoli.-60]

Hi susapric-68,

I am not pretending to be a "private seller". Can you help me locate the exact definition of a "private seller"? I couldn't find it in eBay's T&C.

I am also not hiding any fees from my buyers, they pay exactly what is displayed. Could you be clear what hidden fee did you mean?

Unfortunately, no Google search hit was found for the suggested "you are pretending not to be a business to avoid fees that are typically charged to businesses".

[buffster1963]

Ebay do make it quite clear that if you make, grow, or buy to resell then you need to be registered on a business account. Buyers are paying fees on your items that they should not need to pay. 

[susapric-68]

You ARE pretending to be a private seller on eBay, how can you even say that when you can clearly see you're a private seller when you say you're a sole trader. You are avoiding fees and passing them over to your buyers. That is against the DMCC act. As a business do you pay fees like you should? No. As a result are your customers paying it? Yes. You seem to be finding the info you want to believe and are ignoring the facts even ignoring what is in eBays t&c